For that, you simply have to attend Opera in the Heights"Ballo en Maschera" by Verdi, presented this weekend and next. Saw the Emerald cast last night and will see the Ruby Cast tonight, provided we are not washed out :-).
That IS the advantage of living in Houston Heights.. one need ever miss a performance of this Bijou Company.
It never amazes me how well and exciting the company performs the most beloved as well as the rarer operas. Which Maestro Weibel conducts with his usual flair.
Emerald cast included favorites: clear voiced Tenor Jonathan Hodell (memorable from Tabarro/Pagliacci), suave Baritone Douglin Murray Schmidt (Ditto and others before that), lovely Soprano Kirsten Hoiseth (Ditto) and newcomer, the young but power-house voiced mezzo Kristin Patterson as the blind witch/seeress Ulrika.
Below Park/Hodell, Hodell /Schmidt , Patterson/Hoiseth
all photos by Gwen Turner.
The staging is modernized. For example, the page Oscar becomes a bespectacled private secretary and is well sung by soprano Soo-Ah Park!
Others in the big cast and chorus (chorus master Calvin Fuller has them well drilled :-) are well known to OH! audiences: George Williams, Daymon Passmore, Taylor Rawley, Rachael Ross, Traci Davis and many more.
The house was packed..
OH! is fun.. the audience IS part of the action...
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